The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1887-12-21
The ChickasRw Messenger, News.
paper Published ut OkOiona. Miss.
Advises South Carolina OH the
Agricultural College Business.

| South Carolina Is now being agitated from
ti"n TO estabish 10 an a @ and Mechan
| ical College, copied after our own pet humbug.
| The farmers OF the State are told that the
institution is for their benefit ana their sons
| they can oulslrip their fathers In the preSer'
vation or reclamation Of Their lands and III
| the production of crops, and their class pre-
iudiceS are being aroused to secure their ac-
tive support OF the scheme, which if adopted,
will rcd,1;nd to the interest of the profession.
! II, classes, the swell planters and the educated
| geutry, VITO secure employment at the col
| yjississipri has Travelled the road South
! Carolina is now inportuned to try, ana IT, Is II
pity our Palmetto brethren do not seem 10 DC
Sufficiently posted to profit by onrcNpericncr
Almost ditily We receive letters from different
nn%fionS of the State asking for information
concerning the workings OF our Agricultural
and Mechanical College, and we nave, when
we could, furnished our correspondents with
Il short biography of tho Mississippi "Tombs-
stone Industry" which in siX.yearS opera
tions and after eNpending sH3l utO, turns
toni trO scientific farmers having faith enough
I'm their theoretical education to attempt TO
put it 10 practical utility. ,.,
Our school has now entered its eighth year;
has supportcd in elegance, luxury anu case
since its oprning small army Of well dress
ed and highly cultured people, (most of whom
never tried farming as business, anu not one
Of whom ever made success as O larmcr,)
has expended Of the peoples money aoont
W
of its graduates who arc to-day engaged In
practical agriculture.
Ten rich counties In the State furnish more
than half the attendance; twen,y-one couh-
lepe and the assessment rolls OF Oktlhbeha
county show that the property valuation as
n whole has not increased in the lmmedlat
vicinity of the Agricultural and Mechanical
| College rs it has in other portions of the
State. We assert, andIdefy successful cont ra.
diction that the taXrolls show, that the land OF
| a member of the Board of Trustees lying ad-
iacent to the college farm has deprecated IN
yoIue 25 ner cent. since the establishment Of
| thccollege in sight of his home.
We have had some rich experience, also.
with our muniticenty paid iaenIty' VINO ae
around over the state, holding farmers In,
stitutes (o) and keeping the. people impressed
with the wonderful wor k they are doing ana
the great necessity Tor lurtner anq Digger ap-
preparations, and this too while their places
are filled by subs, generally under graduates
of tile colleges who are paid out OF the State
Treasury.
We illustrate: Our Professor Of Agrieul, !:
ture, whose last report shows he expends
Sl2 900 in farm operations and gets back 81 .OOO
worth Of products, straddles the hobby
"Our worn out lands and how 10 reclaim
.'sow cow peas and turn them under In the
fall. Continue this process, rotate and diver
slfy crops, and our lands" he. says, "will
bloom and blossom as the rose"
are expected to pay him 1000 Der annum and
furnish him nice house to live IN, and @
at the same time pay his assistants S6OO or sS0O
to attend to the duties OF his department IN
the lecture room and on the colledge farm.
Bah!
The advice and experience of one such far
mer as Dixon, OF Georgia, Is OF more value to
agriculture than all the colledge faculties in
America unles others are endowed with
more practicability than ours have ever dis
PLAYED Ours are wonderful theorists, but
practical In nothing except in lobbying big
appropriations out of the treasury.
1t is amusing to observe in the discussion
of the question in South Carol ma, that the
friends of the co!ledge insist that they can
establish one and run it without additional
taxation. We thought so, too, at the outset.
and we in common with other members OF
the original Board Of Trustees urged with
our legislators that If they would appropriate
SOlOUO to purchase the land and erect the nee
essary buildings and then give US the 1nSig-
nincant sum OF $4,000 per annum for three
Sustaining thereafter. But it was so" Let
the S5OO,UO0 in State bonds issued two years
ago to dciray the eXpenees Of our too numcr.
Gus State institutions; The additional levy OF
one mill al ualoren, tax and the enourmous
increase in privalege taxes answer.
We, want to say to our South carolina
friends another thing in this connection and
we are done. Should they determine to bur.
den themselves with an Agricultural and
Mechanical College they will find it will only
be q beginning, and ere five years roll around,
there will be demand for another State inSti-
tuition or two. The elephant must have a
mate. He can forage more successfully. 1t is
Il great deal easier to secure satisfactory ap-
preparations, when there is number OF
pampcred institutions to make common
cause, than when one is compelled 10 go IT
alone.